Ascent Syrah Represents the Pinnacle of Syrah Production at TERRE ROUGE in the Sierra Foothills.
Each year Bill Easton, an original Rhône Ranger, crafts ASCENT from eight of the very best barrels of Syrah selected from their cellar each vintage to make a meager 400/6 packs of this luxury cuvée. All of the grapes are grown in selected Syrah sites scattered throughout the Sierra Nevada in granite and volcanic-based soils at elevations up to 3000ft.
The grapes macerated for two weeks in an open-top fermenter with punch- downs two to three times a day. The wine was aged for 23 months in French oak barrels (François Frères, Ermitage, and other cooperages - from four different forests) and lightly eggwhite fined prior to being bottled unfiltered.
2017 was a solid growing season, with most ripening about a week later than average. Having had a regular Spring season, with bud break in late April, yields were about average, and the harvest proceeded in its average growing window. The grapes and clusters were of a normal size. Syrah harvesting started in mid-September and finished in mid-October and was a couple of weeks earlier than their latest harvest years.
The finished wines have a plush, elegant, and silky texture. This wine will benefit from several years of bottle age, as was intended by the winemaker.
A top scoring wine every year! Since its first release in 1999, the ASCENT has garnered praise and high scores in all national publications, including multiple 100-point awards!
Tasting Notes:
This is a deeply concentrated wine with dense layers of aromatic complexity. Loads of dark and spicy fruit aromas fill your glass. In the mouth you’ll find thick concentrated and riotous meaty Syrah flavors, smoky wood tones, exotic spices, mineral tones, and fine tannins. Great structure and aging potential.